A Few Tips for Swifter Turn Times

Appraising is an always changing profession. Every year, it seems, appraisers are asked to offer additional information or have steps added to their data gathering. All of this is to ensure the end user receives the best information available. In order to stay current with the always changing requirements, Appraisals Plus is constantly testing additional tools and improving processes in order to increase efficiency so we can do more work for in less time. Since Appraisals Plus knows that time is important to everyone, below are a handful of items you can do to accelerate the process on any appraisals ordered from Appraisals Plus .

Order your appraisals on the Internet.

When you order online, you get automatic e-mail notifications that the order was received, and fast, secure .PDF format report delivery. Online ordering is the single biggest time saver available to both of us! We don't have to re-key information from a fax, and you don't have to wonder whether we got the order.

Complete and accurate subject property data is crucial.

There's nothing like being one number off on the street address to unnecessarily delay an appraisal assignment. And if you have a tax parcel number, plat map number, subdivision name or anything else that uniquely identifies the property, please pass it along. Even a list of recent sales from the area is welcome — remember, however, that professional appraisers are lawfully required to do their own due diligence on comparable sales, and ours may differ from yours.

If you have any questions about your property or an appraisal we're working on for you, you're always welcome to call us at

Be sure to let us know about the property's unique characteristics.

It's relatively easy to appraise a cookie-cutter home. What takes time is analyzing how unique details add to or detract from what otherwise would be a property's market value. When ordering your report, let us know if there are unique details of the home or surrounding area -- for example, it's had a recent addition built on, it's subject to zoning restrictions, it's susceptible to flooding. These are things we'll find out on our own anyway, and knowing them early on will likely make your report arrive without delay.

Set proper expectations with the homeowner.

One of the most inefficient tasks of the appraisal process is setting an inspection date with the occupants of the home. It's understandable for a homeowner to be uneasy with a stranger looking in every square foot of their home, taking pictures, and making copious notes. Believing that it will increase the value, some homeowners think they ought to make the place spotless before the appraisal inspection. So they delay the inspection until it is cleaned.

Coming from you -- the person they are working with on their loan -- a little info about the appraisal process, who we are, and especially that dusting and polishing won't increase their home's value one little bit, and can shorten the time it takes to inspect a home. Please feel free to point them to this website, where we have multiple pages of relevant information for homeowners and others describing the appraisal process. They can even call us if they want to meet the staff and learn more about our services. And tell them it's to their advantage to set the appointment without delay!

Use our website to keep track of your report's status.

Why are you still playing phone and fax tag when our website offers up-to-the-minute status updates available online, anytime, 24/7? As we complete each important milestone in an assignment, that information is available instantly to you online. There's no faster way to track your report's status.